52 CAPEIMULGIDiE. 



" There waa no nest, the eggs being laid in a slight depression 

 in the ground, at the root of a tree." 



The eggs found by Mr. Davison are somewhat elongated but 

 very perfect ovals, very obtuse at both ends. The shell is fine, and 

 they have a fair amount of gloss. The ground-colour is a rich 

 salmon-pink, and they are blotched, streaked, and mottled with 

 dull red, which has a slight brownish tinge. Besides these primary 

 markings, numerous clouds and marblings of pale inky purple or 

 neutral tint are scattered about the egg ; but in each egg they are 

 most numerous about one end, where also the primary markings 

 are most dense. Of these two eggs taken at the same time out of 

 the same nest, one is more than a tenth of an inch longer than the 

 other, though in breadth they differ only in one fiftieth of an 

 inch. 



The few eggs I have vary from 1"1 to 1-22 inch in length, and 

 from 0-8 to 0-89 inch in breadth, but 1 have not a sufficient series 

 to make sure that these limits are not exceeded. 



Lyncornis cerviniceps, Gould. The Burmese Eared Nightjar. 

 Lyncornis cerviniceps, Gould, Hume, Cat, no. ] 14 bis. 



Mr. "W. Davison, writing from Tenasserim, says : — " On the 

 morning of the 10th January, 1875, while passing through some 

 thin tree-jungle, almost free from brushwo.od, close to the village 

 of Malawoon, I flushed a Lyncornis from the foot of a large 

 tree. The bird sat ^•ery close, not moving till I was within 

 a couple of yards of her. On looking down at the spot from 

 which she rose, I found one egg lying on the bare ground, without 

 any attempt at a nest, or even depression to prevent the egg from 

 rolling away, \^hich it easily might have done, as the spot where 

 it was laid was slightly raised above the surrounding level. A few 

 of the bird's richly-marked feathers lay about the spot on which 

 the egg lay, and a few inches all round was perfectly dry, while 

 all the surrounding ground was quite wet with the dew of the 

 preceding night, so that the bird must have sat on the egg the 

 whole or greater portion of the night. 



" The egg was quite fresh, so the bird probably lays more than 

 one." 



The egg of this species is, as might be expected, quite of the 

 Nightjar type. In shape it is a long, somewhat cyHndrical oval ; 

 the shell is fine and has a fair gloss, but when looked into closely 

 exhibits a vast number of minute pores. The ground-colour is a 

 pale delicate pinky cream-colour, and it is pretty thickly marked 

 with large irregular blotches and splashes of very pale lilac-grey, 

 looking much as if they lay beneath the surface of the egg. 



This egg measures 1'65 by 1'18. 



